Running has been a part of New Hyde Park Trustee Ed Quinlan’s life for over six decades. Now, it’s sticking to it that’s providing him with some solace after the loss of his wife, Grace, earlier this year.
“It’s the worst thing I think that can happen to anybody in their life. It’s devastating,” Quinlan said of losing his wife of almost 53 years to cancer. “Running helps me every day just to settle myself, get myself into a good frame of mind and to handle the challenges of each day.”
Quinlan, 77, placed second in his age group at the USATF New York State Masters Cross Country Championships in The Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park earlier this month. However, he almost called his running career quits last year, after Grace was diagnosed with cancer.
“At that point, I felt like I was going to just stop the training because I couldn’t keep up with it emotionally,” Quinlan said. “But then I said to myself, ‘You know what, I’m going to continue with this.’ I called my coach. I told him I just didn’t want to go there and run it, that I wanted to train harder and win it with Grace’s illness in mind.”
He placed first in his age group at last year’s race.
“That’s what served and it’s my motivation at that time,” Quinlan said. “It continues to be now.”
Quinlan’s second-place title earned him a spot at USATF Nationals, but he said he won’t be making the trip this year. Why? He wants to spend the next year training even harder, becoming even more prepared, so he can qualify again next year and bring his best to the national stage.
“When you get into a national arena, you’ve got to be ready. You’ve got to be in really good shape,” Quinlan said, “Next year, I’m going to be ready. Hopefully, I can place in that meet and attain an All-American status in that division. I plan to dedicate it once again to my wife.”
“When you experience such a tragedy, it’s hard to get yourself back into your normal activities for so long,” Quinlan continued. “Running gives me an energy, which I need. When I run in the morning, I just feel so much better all day long. When I briefly stopped that, I could see the difference almost immediately in my entire demeanor. I just didn’t like it.”
Running has been an outlet for Quinlan since 1960, when he joined the cross-country team at Long Beach Middle School in seventh grade. For that reason, he said, he hasn’t stopped since.
“Having been raised in a very rough childhood, even back then, I found it as a tremendous outlet to help me deal with the distress of life back then, in the 60s,” he said. “When you’ve been running for 65 years, it becomes almost like eating, drinking, sleeping, and then there’s running. I’m just not the same without it.”
Racing the course at Van Cortlandt is particularly meaningful for Quinlan, as he grew up running it as a high school and college cross country athlete.
“I love to go back there after all those years. The course is beautiful. The foliage is beautiful,” Quinlan said. “It’s a monster course. I forgot how hard it was, but it brought back an incredible amount of memories…that’s what draws me to that location.”
As he takes on training for the tough, hilly Bronx course again this year, he says Grace will continue to be at the top of his mind.
“My biggest motivating factor right now has been the death of Grace and the physiological benefits of running,” Quinlan said. “The biggest thing that I think right now is memories of those 53 years that I had with my wife…When I was running, she used to come to places and watch and bundle up, and we’d go off to a light dinner or a snack afterwards.”
It was such a big part of my life,” he continued. “I still want it to be, even though she’s not here to enjoy it with me anymore.”
Quinlan will be vying for his next ticket to nationals, which he’ll accept this time, at Van Cortlandt Park next November.
